Customer service call centers must find the best way to identify and satisfy a wide variety of customer demands. Typically, customers call needing information, or to request some action, or some combination of the two. Another task carried out in call center operations is providing customers with helpful and relevant information that is not necessarily related to the particular issue the customer called about, such as information regarding additional products the customer may be interested in.
Phone conversations may be recorded in call centers for a variety of reasons. In a typical setting, phone conversations may be recorded for use in training call center employees. A call that was handled well may be replayed to demonstrate techniques that were used to identify and resolve the customer's issue. Alternatively, conversations that went poorly may be used to illustrate what can go wrong, and to coach employees in techniques that may be used to avoid such situations.
A database with a large number of recorded conversations can be difficult to use effectively. Some conversations may be known to a manager as good examples for a particular training scenario, but it can be difficult to find good examples for other scenarios without listening to each and every conversation in the database. Moreover, even if a conversation is identified, it may be difficult to subsequently identify the particular portion of the recorded conversation that is desired.
Furthermore, recorded phone conversations may contain a wealth of valuable information about the customers who called. For example, a customer may mention or imply circumstances in their life that indicate the customer may benefit from a particular product. Customers from particular geographical areas may be identified as frequently calling about similar issues. A wide variety of valuable data may be obtainable from recorded conversations, however present systems do not allow adequate access to such data in a cost-effective way.
Customer service agents typically interact with Customer Relations Management (CRM) software while they are talking with customers. The CRM may provide information about the customer's account and so forth. Such software is certainly useful in facilitating helping the customer with their specific issue, however, the human customer service agent is relied upon to know of additional products or services that are desirable or beneficial to one in the customer's circumstances. The customer or agent may not be aware of, or may not have time to analyze all the needs or possible circumstances of the customer during the conversation while also addressing the specific issue at hand.
Additionally, it may be desirable to provide customers with assistance based on the circumstances of the customer revealed by the contents of previous phone conversations. However, recordings of previous phone conversations with the customer might not exist, and even if they did, might be too large to listen to and analyze for what additional services or products would be helpful to the customer. Furthermore, emerging trends and patterns that point to the need for additional services or products may not be immediately apparent without analyzing data from a larger database of phone conversations.
Thus, systems, processes and computer readable media are needed to address the shortcomings of the prior art.